Home for the Holidays

When you travel as much as I do... staying home becomes a luxury. I'm enjoying Christmas break in Germantown, Maryland with my family. My sister and her family (hubby and two children) are here with us from Greensboro, NC. It's chill and relaxed. It is so relaxed that I found it hard to actually sit and write a blog about travel. How do you write about travel when you are not traveling? The closest thing to a travel tip that I came up with this week is that you can have anything you buy from Nordstroms shipped for free to your home! Imagine that, you go out to Nordies to spend your xmas cash.. and you do not even have to worry about fitting it in your suitcase! You ask them to ship it... and DONE... for free. Ok, Ok... its a stretch.

With all of this time off, I have been doing a lot of reading... mostly travel mags. It made me think about all the travel there is to do in 2008. So, I decided to update my top 10 list of dreamy travel destinations....

• Brazil - I really want to explore the favelas of Rio... I can just smell the feijoida now.
• Mali ... specifically Timbuktu. One of the most influential cities on the face of the earth
• St. Moritz - I'll probably kill myself skiing... but, I bet I would look fabulous on those slopes
• Bali - to overnight at the Bambu Indah... a hotel made entirely out of bamboo
• Kenya - safari yes... but I also want to stay at the Il Ngwesi... a lodge built and managed by the local Laikipiak Masai tribe - simply beautiful people
• Barcelona - still one of my "must see" cities... I would also love to take a cooking class there
• Northern India - I have not picked a city yet... there are so many. I just want to go to a village market at 5am to pick the best part of the daily slaughtered goat and cook it over an open fire and get drunk with the locals.
• Peru - Machu Picchu - this should be on your list... the closest thing to heaven in my opinion
• Madagascar - island life in Africa... where there is a lizard that can sit on the tip of your finger and the local crafts are amazingly beautiful
• New Orleans - still one of my favorite places in the world and it needs our tourism money! I would love to dedicate a weekend to build a house and maybe make a nice gumbo with my N'awlins friends. Mardi Gras is comin'...

I also wanted to make my New Years resolution for 2008... my resolution is to be a responsible traveler. I want to engage myself in social tourism... I want to meet people and engage myself in their culture. I want to find and buy local crafts... no tourist shops for me. I will also make sure to leave a light footprint... practice green travel. I encourage you to all do the same. This world is shrinking which gives us the opportunity to meet each other and interact in new ways. It is also our responsibility to protect it. Let's do it together.

It is nice to be home for a bit. To not be living out of a suitcase. Its also nice to dream about the world outside, the year ahead and the many days of exploring to plan. So, I'll relax now... drink my coffee and maybe take advantage of that free shipping at Nordstroms and get a new suitcase.

Enjoy your families and get out and travel in '08.

*L*